HILO, Hawaii — The State Supreme Court on Wednesday rescinded the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a $1.4 billion observatory planned for the state’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, a revered symbol in Hawaiian culture.

Construction of the telescope, an international collaboration led by the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, had been stalled since April, when protesters blocked crews from the site.

According to the decision handed down Wednesday afternoon, the state’s Board of Land and Natural Resources failed to follow due process by approving the permit in 2011 before a contested case hearing.

“If the process has no integrity, neither will the outcome,” said Kealoha Pisciotta, a spokeswoman for the group that brought the suit.

The telescope, which would be larger than any now on earth, is designed to study planets around distant stars and tune into the birth of galaxies at the dawn of time. Mauna Kea, already home to more than a dozen observatories, is widely considered the best stargazing spot on the planet.

The mountain, however, is also a state-designated conservation district. Opponents of the project have contended that the planned telescope, which at 18 stories high would be the biggest building on the Big Island, represents industrial development and would violate the rules for such zones. In 2005, a court-ordered environmental impact statement concluded that 30 years of astronomy had had an adverse effect on nature and culture on the mountain.

With the court’s ruling, the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corporation and its board will have to start the permit process over — or, in the words of Deborah Ward, one of those who had challenged the permit in court, “take their toys and play in another sandbox.”

In a Twitter message on Wednesday, the telescope consortium said, “This is not a judgment against T.M.T., but rather against the state’s process in granting the permits.”

Later, Henry Yang, chairman of the telescope’s board, said in a statement: “T.M.T. will follow the process set forth by the state, as we always have. We are assessing our next steps on the way forward.”

Comments

"In a Twitter message on Wednesday, the telescope consortium said, “This is not a judgment against T.M.T., but rather against the state’s process in granting the permits.” The issue has never been whether the TMT should exist or not. The issue is where it has been designated to exist. In the rush among Hawaii state government agencies to get the project rooted on its site to make stopping it much more unlikely, they skipped a few steps. The Hawaii Supreme Court ruling says they violated constitutional law when they chose to skip those steps. And they did. And they are being held responsible and accountable. As they should be.

Posted by Kate Sterling,
about 3 years ago

Aloha!
WOW! Mahalo once again for your great job. One step more and the TMT is gone.